Content by tag "Jeff Rupert"

The Big Man on Campus on the fifth recording by the University of Central Florida's dexterous Flying Horse Big Band is composer / arranger / tenor saxophonist Harry Allen who wrote and arranged five of the album's eleven numbers and solos brightly on seven including Henry Mancini's amiable Dreamsville," Billy Strayhorn's happy-go-lucky Raincheck" and Antonio Carlos ...

Tenor saxophonists Lew Del Gatto and Jeff Rupert channeled the spirit and hard-driving swing of Al Cohn and
Zoot Sims in their Friday matinee concert at the Venice (FL) Art Center.
The South County Jazz Club event teamed the two tenors with pianist Richard Drexler, bassist Don Mopsick and drummer Tony
Vigilante.
All of the music they ...read more

Orlando, FL - “It’s the only talent competition of its kind in North America,”
Jeff Rupert, Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida (UCF)
said Monday. Five* of the nation’s best high school age Jazz musicians will come to Orlando in
March, 2014, to perform with the UCF All-Star High School Jazztet, that will open for ...read more

The Jazz Professors aren't wearing any hats they don't own; the fact is, they really are Professors in the Jazz Studies program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Instead of letting the students have all the fun, however, the Professors have recorded three albums of their own, the second Live from UCF-Orlando Jazz Festival, ...

The state of Florida, not usually thought of as a hotbed of jazz, has become a breeding ground for those who may someday be counted among the music's best and brightest, thanks to the state's several widely praised undergraduate Jazz Studies programs that are churning out well-schooled musicians almost as fast as Ben and Jerry's churns ...

Sound and swing. It seems that these two elements of the very DNA of jazz are sadly absent from much of what is offered up in some of today's recorded music. It might be smooth or contrived, but much that's heard doesn't seem in synch with the very essence of the art form. Happily, with From ...

Throughout the decades, the bands of trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson were, by very nature, heavily brass and ensemble section oriented. Occasionally, Ferguson's pianists were given the opportunity to shine, launching into extended solo tune introductions or brief solos. Some of those pianists were (or would become) stars or leaders in their own right. They included Mike ...

I was first exposed to jazz when I discovered that one of Jimi Hendrix's influences was Wes Montgomery. I played guitar growing up and idolized Hendrix, so I knew that anyone he looked up to must be good

I was first exposed to jazz when I discovered that one of Jimi Hendrix's influences was Wes Montgomery. I played guitar growing up and idolized Hendrix, so I knew that anyone he looked up to must be good. I was 16 at the time. I went to Tower Records and purchased a CD by Wes, and I was hooked from the very first ten seconds. The sound of the song Lolita illuminated my bedroom, as I just sat back amazed at how colorful and soulful this music was--I understood it, even though at the time I didn't understand how to go about playing it. I get chills listening to Wes' solo on Lolita, and I can still listen to that song ten times in a row and never get tired of it. There is a truly timeless quality to genuinely spontaneous jazz music, and it is that quality that has inspired me to devote my life to studying and playing this music.